Sale: Triton V, Lot: 1140. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 January 2002.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Lokroi Epizephyrioi. Under Pyrrhos, King of Epeiros. Circa 280-278 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.38 gm). Head of Zeus left, wearing oak wreath; A below / BASILEWS right, PURROU left, Dione seated left, holding sceptre in right hand, raising veil with left. SNG Lloyd 656 (same dies); Boston MFA 944 (same obverse die); SNG Lockett 1650 var. (no A); Pozzi 1287 var. (same). Toned, good VF, scrapes on the obverse, flan crack. Very rare. ($2000)

From the William N. Rudman Collection. Ex Italo Vecchi Auction II (12-13 September 1996), lot 184.

Pyrrhos was the last and greatest of the 'champions' to support the Hellenic cause in Italy. He had originally come to Italy at the request of Tarentum to help against the rising dominance of Rome. Pyrrhos' army won important battles but his losses were so high he was unable to keep his gains, thus the phrase 'Pyrrhic victory'. This coin, considered a masterpiece of Hellenistic coinage, features a majestic head of the Dodonian Zeus on the obverse. On the reverse is Dione Naïa, Zeus' consort at Dodona.